8 Audio CD set that you can listen to in your car, truck, old boombox or any other standard CD player you have lying around.

 

It was a conflict as controversial as it was calamitous, with the dubious distinction of being the first war ever fought on television. But beyond the images of battle-ravaged Vietnam lie exploits of some of the war's elite Allied mavericks, recounted here In Their Own Words. With you-are-there narration by the men who actually were, this 8 Audio CD suite reveals the precise and riveting preparation for, and aftermath of, clandestine missions. Relive the exploits of the Tunnel Rats, those American soldiers, armed with nothing but a pistol and a flashlight, responsible for disarming underground booby-traps, and the Wild Weasels, an outrageous cowboy corps of pilots, initially with a 100% casualty rate, whose job was to invite enemy fire. With over six hours of personal and poignant recollection by Allied troops ranging from the horrifyingly overwhelmed combat medic, to the protagonists of the Bat 21 Rescue, the In Their Own Words: Vietnam collection is an audio treasury which brings to life a time of unprecedented valor.

 

CD 1: Forward Observers - Brian Thacker and Barney Barnum, often alone, served as point men to the Allied forces, scouting and securing vulnerable vantage points.

 

CD 2: Forward Air Controllers - William Platt and Bill Townsley were specialists at flying low and slow, in single-engine, unarmed aircraft, over enemy territory.

 

CD 3: The Bat 21 Rescue - On April 2nd, 1972, Gene Hambleton was shot down over enemy territory and eluded capture for six days. His exploits became the basis for the feature film, Bat 21.

 

CD 4: Wild Weasels - Bill Sparks, Mike Gilroy, Tom Wilson, and Jerry Hoblit were among the wild blue yahoos who defied early 100% failure rates to openly engage their planes in cat-and-mouse exercises with enemy missiles.

 

CD 5: Studies and Observations Group (SOG) - JD Bath and Bill Deacy recruited Vietnamese operatives, and attempted to extract prisoners of war, as members of a clandestine joint-service taskforce.

 

CD 6: Snipers - Chuck Mawhinney served as a tenacious Marine Corps marksman, once eliminating 16 enemy soldiers crossing a river.

 

CD 7: Tunnel Rats - CW Bowman, Gerry Schooler, and Art Tejeda spent hours, even days, scurrying through the enemy's intricate network of underground passageways dismantling booby-traps.

 

CD 8: Medics - Future senator Max Cleland lost three limbs when a grenade exploded in his hand, his life was saved by four beleaguered field medics.